This invention relates to tooth brushes, and in particular to a tooth brush that not only cleans the teeth, but also removes food particles at the gum line and provides gum massage in order to eliminate gum diseases.
Gum diseases are the primary cause of tooth loss in adults. If gums recede, teeth eventually loosen and are lost. As a result, modern dental care has led to development of various types of brushes, cleaners, tooth pastes and mouth washes to help retard and control gum diseases. For many years, and well into the previous century, various tooth brushes have been devised in an effort to effect proper tooth scrubbing and removal of lodged food and other materials.
U.S. Pat. No. 569,870 discloses a tooth brush that may be used to scrub the front and back surfaces of teeth in the same operation. A similar result occurs with the tooth brush of U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,091,291; 1,353,780; 2,214,407 and 2,244,615. Variations on such structures are also shown in French Patent No. 825,856 (Mar. 16, 1938), German Patent No. 818,794 (Sept. 20, 1951) and British Patent No. 745 of Jan. 18, 1886.
Of the above patents, U.S. Pat. No. 2,244,615 discloses a tooth brush structure in which inner bristles are softer than outer bristles, apparently because the outer bristles are longer. No attention is given to shaping of the rows of bristles, with the intent being to simply form a channel for guiding a tooth brush along the teeth to effect scrubbing of all tooth surfaces at the same time.